Fiapre (B/A), July 23, GNA - The increasing rise of school fees should ideally result in an increasing rise in quality of education especially among tertiary students, Mr. Michael Docyor Yomoh, National President of the Ghana Union of Professional Students (GUPS) said on Thursday.

"But unfortunately it is rather resulting continually in increasing decline in quality of education," he said.

Mr Yomoh said this at the opening of the 8th annual national congress of the GUPS underway at the Faculty of Forest Resources and Technology of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology at Fiapre, near Sunyani.

The five-day congress is on the theme "promoting quality, accessible and affordable education to all, reclaiming the mind of the 21st century student".

The congress would also elect new executives to run the affairs of the Union.

Mr Yomoh expressed concern that increasingly education was becoming "extremely inaccessible and unaffordable" and it was pertinent that students exhibited high level of excellence through strong ethics.

An ethical society, he noted, would therefore be able to promote access to education through affordability.

Mr Yomoh stated that "it is therefore only via the promotion of quality, accessible and affordable education that the soul and mind of the 21st century students can be reclaimed from delusive, diabolic, misconstrued and doctored perception about life in its entirety, imbibed in them by the negative influences both internal and external in other to harness it for development".

Reverend Father Timothy Kankam Tuffour, Sunyani Municipal Director of Education, stressed the need for institutional authorities to prepare students who would be able to critically assess and help solve problems of national concern.

He admonished the students to eschew all forms of unhealthy practices and read their books to achieve high academic laurels.

Rev Tuffour advised the student body to also contribute their quota whilst the government worked hard to improve on quality education.